F*CKING ANCIENT Comes to Adelaide Fringe Festival

Maggie McCormack (Marriage, Hearth Theatre; The Will, Anthropocene Play Company) became tormented and obsessed with preventing herself from aging in her late teens. Botox, lasers, skin care, wigs, fasting and even a couple of trips to the plastic surgeon's office, all the while she embarked on a spiritual journey that was leading her in the opposite direction. Towards her timelessness as a soul.

F*CKING ANCIENT includes real (lightly tweaked) stories from Maggie's real life, weaving together comical tales from her Podiatry career where she works with the elderly nearing the end of their lives, her desire for love and her knowing deep inside that there must be something beyond this physical body.

Maggie says "It is my heartfelt hope that the audiences will feel inspired to accept themselves and appreciate their bodies as the amazing vehicles that they drive through this life in. Body positivity, body neutrality, we are inundated with myriad of mantras and affirmations to convince ourselves that we're beautiful. As a lover of ALL things self improvement, my aim is to explore these themes with humor and without judgement. This play asks what kind of deep internal psychic shift needs to happen to transmute beauty standard platitudes into actual self acceptance."

Ngaire Dawn Fair, director of The Village Bike, Red Stitch Actors Theatre, MYLK and Red Stitch ensemble member (you may also know as "The Ford Girl" and numerous film and television roles) directs and says "Creating a digital theatre show during the pandemic was uncharted territory. It's a play, but we're filming it -but it's not a film -we still want it to feel like you're witnessing something live. It should not feel over-edited. It is powerful, joyful and moving because of Maggie's sparkling personality, her personal story and raw, tour-de-force performance."

In 2006 Maggie and Ngaire met at The National Theatre Drama School (St Kilda, Melbourne) three year program Diploma of Acting. It is was here where Maggie experienced the thrill of performing a one woman show for their third year assessment. At the time her chosen comical subject matter was her profession as a podiatrist as well as her tragic dalliances with French men.

Maggie has dreamed of developing a full length one woman show and since meeting they have always wanted to collaborate. Now fifteen years later, over Zoom, in a pandemic, they devised, rehearsed, and when the borders opened Maggie was able to fly to Los Angeles and film the show for the digital component of The Adelaide Fringe Festival, in only three days.

For this production Maggie and Ngaire are joined by lighting, sound, editor and DOP Ben Prendergast.

On this exciting new digital platform F*CKING ANCIENT can be purchased and viewed from anywhere in the world.

"The Crone cannot expect to be accepted without first accepting herself... the silenced Crone cannot demand a place in a society where she has helped exile this archetype. Will you let her in and feast on the banquet of your holy life experience or...leave her out to starve in hopes that the maiden and mother...will someday come back." -Anabel Vizcarra

Performances run 18 February - 20 March 2022.

Bookings: https://adelaidefringe.com.au/search/events?keyword=f*cking+ancient

2026 Theater Fans' Choice Awards - Live Stats

Best Revival of a Play - Top 3

1. Every Brilliant Thing

28.6% of votes

2. Death of a Salesman

27.3% of votes

3. Oedipus

9.6% of votes

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